Big Stevie

Livorno (Pizza/Florence) - We paid £142 for the Pizza/Flarence On our Own excursion whilst on Ventura, using our OBC. This entailed a 90 min coach drive to Pizza where we stayed for about 1 hr which was more than sufficient time. The area surrounding the leaning tower isn't particularly pleasant and there are hoards of black en selling tat you dont want. They were very annoying.

Then an hours drive to Florence with 4hrs free time to wander around. it was blisteringly hot with hardly anywhere in the shade to sit. Still, a very nice place to see.

Civitavecchia (Rome) - Another place I've always wanted to visit, hence why we pre booked this cruise man weeks in advance.

Another 90min coach drive into Rome in very hot weather. With our tour guide we were whisked straight into the Colosseum bypassing the queues where we spent an hour or so, with free time to wander around, though there isn't a great deal to see, but I really enjoyed it.

Then we walked over to the Forum, this tour lasted about 1.5hrs in the blistering heat and nowhere to purchase water. It was an interesting place to see.

After we boarded the coach and went to a a square whose name I forget, and saw the ruins of the Gladiators training camp. Then we had about 3hrs free time so grabbed a meal and walked over to the Vatican. By this time it was time to return to the meeting point to board the coach and return home. Frustratingly we drove past the Vatican which we had already seen. Had I know we would have gone to see the Trevis Fountain and Spanish Steps instead. Never mind.

Ajaccio - This was our 3rd port day in a row, and I could really have doe with a day at see instead to recover from the tiring two days in Pizza/FLorence/Rome. Frustratingly there were issues with the tenders and only a small number were in use. We were told this was because of an accident?Everyoe was instructed to gather in the Cinnamon restaurant and were given raffle numbers and told to wait for our numbers to be announced. We waited an hour but other had been waiting 2hrs!!

We were tendered off the ship and we then walked left, around the headland and found a very nice beach. Due to the tender problem we only had a couple of hours ashore so sadly had to return to ship. A very nice looking town but not enough time allowed ashore to discover it.

Cadiz - Our final port day. Cadiz is a nice enough place, and you dock right in the centre so can simply walk off the boat into town, But to be honest due to the cruise coming to an end I just wanted to get home. We wandered around for 2-3hrs and decided to return to ship to eat. We didn't bother getting back off the ship, instead we sat around the pool.

Cadiz was followed by two days at sea, with the weather now changing from lovely hot & sunny to cool and cloudy.

Norovirus

During these final two days our ship made an emergency unscheduled stop somewhere in Spain for a medical emergency’. We weren't told anything further about this. I watched as a Spanish coastguard boat came alongside, a passenger stepped onboard, with the boat then then returning to shore.

However, a fellow passenger later claimed to have been informed by the ships doctor/nurse that the patient had norovirus and that a further 4 passengers were also affected and confined to cabin. i can say of this was true or not, but I now know that another P&O ship had norovirus at the same time.

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Shopping

There were a few shops located together midships around deck 6 & 7. I didn't visit these except to buy a model of the Ventura ship for my son from the gift shop. From memory i noticed a watch shop, jewellery shop, handbag shop, a shop selling bowties etc, Costa Coffee and an Art gallery.

Photographs

Photographers seemed to wander around the ship quite often, asking if folk wanted their photo taken. If you said no as we did then they walked away without applying any kind of pressure. They also appeared in some of the restaurants we ate in, along with being located outside the ship on port days. That also set up their studios on Black Tie evenings.

At the beginning of the cruise the Photography shop on deck 7 advertised certain offers for different packages, which weren't cheap…

Photo

On our final black tie night we decided to have our photos taken and we were quite impressed with them, so much so we decided to purchase 3 x photos and a frame which came to about £63. This took us over our OBC limit, but the photos were very nice.

Port Days & Excursions

We only purchased two excursions with P&O, one being Glories of the Gladiators in Rome (which we had pre purchased prior to the cruise) and the other bing Pizza & Florence On Your Own. We purchased these because the destinations were about 9- mins from port and we didn't want to risk missing the ship at the end of the day. Both were very good.

Vigo - A small town with nothing much to see, but we walked to the top of the hill to the castle walls for a nice view of the port and our ship docked with Royal Caribbean ‘Anthem of The Seas’. Upon returning to our ship we were met with extremely long queues to get through the port security terminal. This was because there were also 3000+ Royal Caribbean passengers who had the same idea. It took about 45mins to get through the terminal in very hot weather. Not pleasant.

View from top of the hill…

Lisbon - We were very disappointed with Lisbon having walked into the old town through the back streets which were covered in graffiti, litter and dog pooh.

Gibraltar - this was our most disappointing day, but was more my fault than anyone else. We were only in dock from about 9:30am to 2:30pm which wasn't much time at all. We really wanted to go up the rock to see the apes. Id read that this is a port you can explore on your own so we walked off the ship to do just that. Im never a fan of jumping on the first taxi/tour bus I see, I refer to wander into town and get better prices.

We were immediately met with tour buses selling trips up the rock for €22 each which I assumed was a rip off. They also told us that a power cut meant that the cable car up the rock wasn't working (which turned out to be a lie). We walked into town only to discover all the tour bus prices were the same, but still thought they were expensive. So we caught a taxi to the cable car, which was working. This is when our son refused to go on the cable car due to him not liking heights. By this time there wasn't sufficient time to do the tour bus trip, so we missed out on going up the rock. Instead we did some duty free shopping as alcohol is really cheap here.

A very disappointing day.

Monte Carlo - This is a place I've always wanted to visit, and I wasn't disappointed. We docked offshore and were tendered into port. Learning from the Gibraltar disaster we jumped straight on the Hop On Hopp Off bus and did a couple of laps of the town. This cost €21/adilt and €8/child. Not cheap but worth doing. his enabled us to familiarise ourselves with the land marks we wanted to see.

I managed to walk the F1 circuit, visit the Casino and the Palace, and strolled further around the town. An enjoyable day was had.

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Swimming pools

Ventura seems to have about as many swimming pools as it does restaurants! By the end of our 2 weeks there were still swimming pols I hadn't used.

There is an outdoor family pool midships on deck 15 as well as a similar indoor pool. There is a small outdoor pool for adults only at the front of the ship. There were also pools at the rear of the ship that i never got to use.

Sports

Deck 19 has an outdoor netted area with one basketball hoop and a tennis net. Tennis clubs, cricket bats, footballs and basketballs were stored here and available to use. There was also a separate netted golf pitching area.

Laundry

Our deck had a laundry room, I assume other back had one also? Ours contained 3 ironing boards with irons, washing machines and dryers, all free to use. We used these often throughout the cruise..

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Bay Tree - This is a restaurant for passengers on allocated meal times, with 6:30pm or 8:30pm. Freedom diners were not allowed in here (I tried but was refused). It had the same menu as the Cinnamon and Saffron.

East - This was an eastern inspired waiter service restaurant which served very nice food and had a cover charge of £15 each. Food was styled around Indian, Chinese and Thai.

Glass House - We didn't eat here.

Black Tie Evenings

When booking our cruise I had no intention of participating in the black tie nights, simply because I didn't own a suit. But a few days before we sailed I bought a cheap £130 tuxedo from Debenhams, along with a bow tie and formal shirts. We also purchased the same for our 8yr old son.

Im glad I did, because the black tie nights were very nice. Most people seemed to adhere to this dress code, with men wearing either a dark suit or dinner suit, but you weren't forced to. Some didn’t.

It was nice to eat in the restaurants with everyone else dressed up, and drink in the bars afterwards. Lots of ladies and gents approached our 8yr old son commenting on how smart he looked in his tuxedo, which was nice to hear and pleased him no end. I would have been disappointed to have missed out on these nights, being dressed in jeans wouldn't have been the same.

Entertainment & Shows

Most of these were excellent apart from one (see below). The entertainment we saw included…

Paul Eastwood (comedian) was excellent and very funny and appeared in the havana bar.

Mark Walker (comedian/singer) was good until he started insulting a member of the audience which we thought was appalling. Arena theatre.

Manuel Martinez (comedian/magician) absolutely amazing and our favourite. Our son loved him also. Havana bar.

Phil Collins tribute - good but not my thing.

Tom Jones tribute - good but not my thing.

Witney Houston tribute - I didn't see this but the wife sad she was very good.

Strictly Come Dancing - I have no interest in Strictly and we didn't bother seeing the first show. But we heard the second show was really good, so we went to see it and agreed with what we had been told. Arena theatre.

David Pybus - very interesting and engaging man, and a Dragond Den winner. He gave talks on sea days throughout the cruise on subjects such as The lost city of Atlantis, Jack the Ripper & Dads Army tv show. I thoroughly enjoyed them all and I could listen to him all day. Tamarind bar.

One thing I was told by other cruiser was that each P&O ship repeats the same entertainers each cruise. If this is true then this would put me off doing another P&O cruise as I wouldn't want to see the same entertainer twice. The frustrating thing about seeing these shows was that in order to get a good seat we had to be at the venue about 1hr prior to the show starting.

Oasis Health Club Presentations - Despite being advertised in the Horizons newsletter as interesting presentations on subjects such as back pain and other health matters, they were always trying to sell a service fro the health club. I stopped going to these.

Port Talks - Talks were held on forthcoming destinations of the cruise, these were worth attending for bits of useful info but really they were an opportunity for the ship to sell their excursions, put there was never any pressure to purchase.

Arena theatre…

Kids Club

Ventura has 4 different kids clubs for different age ranges. Our 8yr old son was in the Surfers Club for 5-8 yr olds. I can only comment on his club as I have no knowledge of the others.

He absolutely loved the kids club and wanted to go every day. They were open from 9am to 11pm, but closed for an hour around meal times. Staff were really great. They held different activities each day, from sports to console games.

We registered our son on the first day by attending he club and handing over a form I had already completed from the Cruise Personaliser. Registering is compulsory before your child can use the club. Parents have to take their child to the club and sign them in, your signature is checked against your cruise card. to collect your child yo have to attend and sign them out. A

At 9pm the kids would vote for which film they wanted to watch, then all sit on bean bags watching the film which lasted until about 10:45pm.

Ventura has a kids dining area near the kids club where they serve a children's menu - curly fries, chicken nuggets etc. You sit with your child and can then return them to the club, allowing parents to spend the evening together if desired.

Cinema

I didn't attend the cinema as the only films I was interested is seeing where shown on port days when I was off the ship. Films shown on sea days tended to be classic musicals (perhaps because it was a Strictly come Dancing cruise?) which didn't interest me. From peeping my head into the cinema I didn't thing the picture quality was very good.

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Waterside (Deck 15) - This is the self service buffet restaurant which we used for breakfasts, lunch, afternoon tea and evening meals, as well as snacks during the day. Ford was perfectly good enough for us with a reasonable selection. Each night had a different theme such as Indian, Mexican, Carvery etc. There always seems to be 3 or 4 different main meal choices as well as bread various deserts, bread rolls, cheese & biscuits etc. Waiters took away your used plates & cutlery allowing you to return for more food. You can eat as much as you like in here, and as often as you like. It seemed to be open 24hrs.

Beach House (Deck 15) - This was pretty much identical to the Waterside but maybe had slightly different opening times.

Beach House Diner (Deck 15) - This was simply an area of the Beach House above that was turned into a separate restaurant each evening. Cover charges applied but it wasn't expensive at all. Certain dishes had additional cover charge, steak served on a lava rock was about £3.

Epicurean - We treated ourselves to a meal in here on one night as to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, leaving our son in Kids Club. The cost for two of us including a bottle of wine was £74. Food was quite high end and I would describe it as very fancy, with extra courses being brought out as chefs treats. Service was very good.

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Restaurants

We ate in every restaurant except the Glass House as this seems more oriented to the wines that came with each course, which I had little interest in. Food was always very good and with sufficient choice. Heres my thoughts on the restaurants we used…

Cinnamon & Saffron- These were both restaurants for Freedom Diners only, they both had the same menu and had waiter service, though you could ask for additional servings (one day I had two deserts). They both opened for breakfast, lunch and evening meal. They both had a menu that remained the same each night (steak, chicken etc) but also had another menu that changed each evening. I noticed that some of the meal choices were identical to what was available in the Waterside buffet, but also had additional choices.

When entering the restaurant we were asked if we wanted our own table or if we were happy to share with others. We did a combination of both. We were always shown to a table straight away, even when wanting to a table on our own (3 of us) though I did notice the buzzers they handed out if a table wasn't ready, allowing you to go and have a drink whilst you waited. I didn't see anyone having to use these.

On Black Tie nights there was also a posher menu which often included lobster etc.

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Cabin - Our cabin, though not large, was certainly bigger than I had expected and was perfectly suitable for us. It had two single beds with two bunk beds above (which we had requested), 1 x english plug socket on the dressing table, about 18 clothes hangers in the open wardrobe, a fridge and adequately sized toilet/shower room. 6 large bottles of water were provided at a cost of €1.5 each.

Heres our cabin..

Our obstructed view wasn't as bad as I had expected, it was blocked by just the front of one of the tenders so allowed a partial view out, perfect…

View through window beyond the tender..

Upon embarking there wasn't any time to settle in or grab a meal from one of the restaurants as our cabin steward came knocking to tell us we needed to attend the 4:15pm safety briefing. This was compulsory and covered details on what to do in the event of an alarm sounding, seeing someone go overboard and putting on our life vests etc. This lasted about 40 mins when we then returned to our cabin to unpack. Then onto one of the outside decks to watch the ship depart…

We had been allocated a meal in the Cinnamon restaurant for that evening but decided instead to use the Waterside buffet restaurant on deck 15 (more about restaurants later) as we had missed lunch and were starving.

First night

An evening was spent wondering around and getting lost on the ship which is massive!!!! A few drinks in the bars and then to bed. At 3am in the morning we were awoken by an extremely loud THUMP sound, to discover our 8yr old son had fallen out of his top bunk. There was a safety guard around the head end of the bed but he had wriggled about and fallen out at the foot end. Screams and tears followed and a phone call from our cabin to reception requesting an additional guard. Seconds later our room was filled with concerned crew members and an additional guard was fitted. Thankfully no injuries, just one of those things that happens I guess?

Due to being awoken and the constant humming sound from the air con unit which couldn't be switched off (but want noticeable after the first couple of nights) I couldn't get back to sleep, so I went for a wander around the ship, and got lost yet again.

Horizons news letter

Late each evening a newsletter was left outside everyones cabin detailing the events for the following day, including restaurant opening times and times for shows etc. It also included timings for anyone who was booked on a ships excursion explaining where and when to meet to get the coach etc. We read this each night and planned for the day ahead. Also available from reception.

Tipping

Automatic Gratuities - I had decided to leave the automatic tipping in place, but seeing as P&O had increased this amount in the weeks after we had booked the cruise I attended the reception desk and asked to change the amount back to the original £3.95/day/adult. I was given a simple form to fill out with no questions asked and later that day this transaction was viewable on the in-cabin TV. Easy peasy lemon squeazy!

As we were on Freedom dining I didn't tip anyone in the Cinnamon or Saffron restaurants as we had different waiters each day. I allowed the auto gratuities to deal with this. We did tip in the Epicurean and East restaurants.

We also tipped our cabin steward who was fantastic. He cleaned our cabin perfectly each morning and returned in the evening to turn down the beds and leave chocolates. After a few days we told him not to worry about tuning down our beds as it wasn't important to us and he had enough on his plate, so instead he would just leave the chocolates on the dressing table.

I was impressed enough to leave him a tip, though I had no idea how much to give him so decided to give him £10 cash during the first week, and £20 at the end of the cruise. he appeared very grateful for this but to be honest i have no idea whether this was a suitable amount?

On Board Credit

I kept tabs on our OBC each day via the TV in our cabin. Our £820 OBC saw us through our two week cruise, allowing us to pay for an excursion to Florence, a few evening meals in the restaurants with cover charges, soft drinks and Costa coffees during the day and a few alcoholic drinks during the evening. We only exceed our OBC on the last day when buying photographs and a jewellery purchase for the wife.

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Just returned from my first ever cruise and thought id post a bit of a review. Having never done a cruise before I didn't know what to expect and I hope this review is useful for any other first timers..

Generally speaking we really enjoyed the whole experience, but there were a few negatives which I shall cover. These aren't particularly complaints, just my observations. We are a couple aged in our 40’s with an 8yr old son.

Im posting this review in sections as forum rules state only 6 images are allowed in each post. Here goes…

Booking

We wanted a cruise that departed from Southampton to avoid having to fly anywhere, and decided on a Mediterranean cruise. We defiantly wanted to see Monaco and Rome, which narrowed our options but discovered that P&O did a cruise covering both these destinations - Ventura N515.

Southampton - Vigo (Spain) - Lisbon - Gibraltar - Monaco - Pizza/Florence - Rome - Ajaccio - Cadiz - Southampton

We found booking our first cruise to be a minefield, until you have done a cruise you have no idea what choices to make i.e. cabin type, dining options etc, so we were cautious not to choose any overly expensive options that we wouldn't end up appreciating. We booked with Bon Voyage purely because we found their website easy to navigate, and the telephone staff were very helpful, and everyone seemed to be a similar price anyway. By chance we booked in February 2015 which is when P&O were offering double On Board Credit (OBC), so we were given £410/adult - totalling £820. This became extremely useful during our cruise. Heres what we did..

Cabin choice - We wanted a cabin with a window to allow daylight inside in the mornings, to give a perspective of time, so that ruled out an inside cabin. For a Med cruise I didn't thing a window with a clear view was particularly important for us, so we booked a cabin with an obstructed view. I wanted it to be in a quiet area of the ship, and took advice from the Travel Agent and chose a cabin directly above the Photographic area and fairly midship to reduce any ships movement.

Dining - We opted for Freedom dining which we thought would suit us better, having our young son with us. This proved to be the correct choice for us. I was concerned that selecting a fixed dining time would be unsuitable for us.

Pre cruise info

Documents, luggage labels - Once we had booked out cruise we were emailed access information to P&O’s Cruise Personaliser website where a week or two before the cruise we were given our boarding papers and luggage labels to print off.

Pre Booking Excursions - These are able to book online via the Personaliser site, but you have to pay at time of booking so cant use any OBC. Visiting the Colosseum in Rome was a must for me, so we booked the Glory of the Gladiators excursion to guarantee a place and secure seeing this land mark. I shall cover this excursion later.

Accommodation - We decided to stay over the night before our cruise so there was no danger of being held up by roadworks etc, so booked the Holiday Inn at Southampton which is right next to the dock, and paid for 1 x night with breakfast and 14 nights parking and free taxi transfers to/from Ocean Cruise Terminal included. This was a perfectly acceptable hotel for what we wanted. On arrival we had been given a top floor room with a sea view..

Hoilday Inn..

View from window..

Embarkation

P&O had allocated us an arrival time at Ocean Cruise Terminal of 2:45pm. I arranged the hotels free taxi transfer to get us there at 2pm. Its only a 5 minute drive from the Holiday Inn.

On arrival at the terminal…

Luggage porters immediately took our luggage from us and whisked it away, leaving us to go upstairs to the first floor to check in. On arrival we were given a coloured and number card and told to wait for our card colour/number to be announced over the tannoy before approaching the check in desk. It was crowded with nowhere to sit initially, but eventually we found a seat. There is a very small cafe inside the waiting area which we didn't use.

We weren't called forward to the check in desk until about 3:45, then passed through security and eventually boarded and arrived at our cabin at 4pm, our luggage awaiting us outside the cabin.

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Ive recently had one night stay in the Holiday Inn next to the port, including 14 night car parking. Perfectly acceptable hotel. Have a look here...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2220878

If my memory id correct, the Grand Harbour is next door to the Holiday Inn and will have an almost identical sea view (thats assuming you have a room with a sea view)?

Not the same as my understanding of pre-paid Big Stevie, I assume these are paid with your balance before cruising, not on your on board account.

I guess so, I have no knowledge of paying tips prior to your cruise. I wonder if the OP means they paid at time of booking or their room was charged upon boarding?

We had double OBC (£820) for booking our cruise in Fab 2015, this was awarded as £410/adult.

I monitored our spending via our cabins TV and ensured it was spent equal between mine and my wifes card and judged it so we didn't go over £410 on either card

Auto tips were charged to our room on the first day of our cruise (last week). I went to reception on day 2 and altered the amount I wanted to pay. No questions asked, simply handed a form with some boxes to tick and the deed was done. Simples.

You can amend/cancel the auto tips at any time during your cruise.

Just come off the Ventura today (14 nights Med cruise) and we had an unscheduled diversion to a Spanish port for a 'medical emergency'. A coast guard boat came along side and a passenger was transferred. I was later told it was an elderly man with norovirus, and that 4 other passengers were confined to cabin with the same condition.

Don't shoot the messenger as I have no idea if the norovirus claim was true, it was simply what another passenger told me, but they had apparently been told this by the ships nurse/doctor.

P&O state a maximum of 20KG per case, but Im not sure if it is enforced? I would assume that the case can't be overly heavy and as long as the porter can carry it then you will be fine.

Ive just come off the Ventura today from our first ever cruise (around the Med). I shall be writing a full review soon so look out for it, I shall include info on the excursions we did.

I spoke to other passengers who had done 3 excursions with Cruise/Cruising Excursions and they were extremely happy with them. They said they were cheaper than P&Os excursions and had a deal if you purchased 3 excursions. I think they said they had their own channel on Sky where you can book them, channel 256???? Just make sure they guarantee getting you back to the ship on time!

Just come off the Ventura myself, films were shown in the Arena Theatre and also in the Tamarind bar. Ours was a Strictly Come Dancing Cruise and most of the films were old black & white musicals which I didn't bother to see. They did show a couple of recent release films as well, but they were shown on days when we were at port so didn't have the chance to see them.

We have recently stayed in the Holiday Inn Southampton which was perfectly adequate for our one night stay prior to our cruise, with parking. This was our room on he top floor and the view from the window...

View from my Southampton Holiday Inn hotel room window....

Thanks Brian, and thanks for all the help & advice over the last few weeks :).

Thanks, Ill take some drinks to keep the fridge topped up.

Driving down to Southampton tomorrow, night in the Holiday Inn, then board Venture the following day for 14 night Med cruise.

I think I might allow myself to be ever so slightly excited :D

Are there fridges in the outside cabins on Ventura?

Planning on taking soft drinks aboard and wondered if there would be a mini fridge in our room?

Thanks

I have booked this tour also on our Ventura cruise that sails on 28th May 2015. Decided to book this in advance to guarantee seeing the colosseum and hopefully walk past the public queues. I shall be able to post exactly what this tour includes when we return on 11th June.

Thanks Brian.

I do think we have been given the cabin we requested. We took advice from the travel agent for a cabin in a quiet area.

Thanks Brian,

Im beginning to think that this is the original cabin that we chose when booking, though we did tick the box to accept any possible upgrade. So would any upgrade have happened by now, or do they happen when checking in?